


cinémathèque

by Lirazel



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Bechdel Test Ficathon, Bechdel Test Pass, Female Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-13
Updated: 2012-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-29 12:58:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirazel/pseuds/Lirazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline, predictably enough, has always loved classic Hollywood films.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cinémathèque

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "makes you feel happy like an old-time movie" at the [Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon 2.0](http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/244264.html)

Caroline, predictably enough, has always loved classic Hollywood films. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe—if they’re in it, she’s happy. She’s had a crush on Cary Grant her whole life, and she’s always wanted her wedding dress to look like Princess Grace’s ( _vampires don’t have weddings, of course, but this was long before any of them even knew that they were real, much less that one day Caroline would be one of them_ ). Elena’s more of a John Hughes kind of girl ( _later, she finds this ironic, considering how the Brat Pack world resembled nothing at all about her own high school experience_ ), and though Bonnie tends to like her movies a little more realistic, she also introduces them to actresses Gran had introduced her to: Dorothy Dandridge, Anna May Wong, Rita Moreno ( _Gran always thought it was important to see successful people who looked like you, or at least looked different in the same way you did, and Bonnie thinks of them when she learns the truth about Emily and no one will actually use the word ‘slave’_ ). But when they need cheering up ( _at first, it’s little things--Lila Miller won’t talk to Bonnie at school anymore, Matt hurts Elena’s feelings, Caroline bombs her math test--but as they get older, their problems grow with them: the whole thing with Caroline’s parents happens, then Bonnie’s mom leaves for good this time, then the accident with Elena’s parents happens, and they’re all abandoned by the people who loved them in various ways. And this is all before they realize what’s going bump in the night_ ), Elena will suggest a sleepover, and it’s Caroline’s movies they watch.

For a little while, the world is beautiful dresses, cocktails, snappy dialogue, cigarette smoke, musical numbers, leading men in tuxedos, and kisses in the rain ( _instead of blood and fangs and spells that kill your grandmother and vampires with your face and boyfriends who turn into wolves when the moon is full_ ). They cuddle up on the couch, a tangle of limbs and fuzzy afghans, half-finished bowls of popcorn and chips around them, a box of Kleenexes nearby if the movie’s a tearjerker ( _sometimes there’s almost a pleasure in crying at someone else’s pain, when it isn’t real and it’ll all be resolved by the end of the movie_ ). Caroline paints Bonnie’s toenails and Bonnie braids Elena’s hair and Elena is really good at massages.

The credits of one film will have barely ended before one of them pops another one in ( _first it’s VHSes, then it’s DVDs, technology growing up as they do_ ), a stream of perfect images that never change ( _no matter how much the girls who are watching them do_ ), and as the night crawls on, they seem to bleed into each other, until between their sleepiness and the wistful music of the movies, it’s easy to let go of what’s biting into their hearts and pretend, for a little while, that life is simple ( _and that a happy ending is guaranteed_ ).


End file.
